Congratulations to Colin who broke Watto’s streak with a high scoring December overturning the few points deficit and sealing the win. Despite Watto’s age group PB at the Turkey Trot , Colin matched that and took the club record, he then repeated the scoring feats at Long Eaton Parkrun which is what sealed the champs. Matty took 3rd, just edging out Kevin despite having a lean end of season due to poorly leg syndrome.

Kieran has started a streak by successfully defending his overall Fell champs title and in the process also took the handicap trophy. The inaugural Ladies title went to Liz. It was a bit of stroll in the mud for the champs this year as they destroyed the competition early doors.

It was oh so very close for the podium this year. It actually came down to decimals in the battle for Bronze but it ended up..Gold John Wadelin (247.23), Silver Tom Stokes (233.51) and Bronze Colin Lewis (228.34). 4th place was Andy just 0.46 off that podium...just a few seconds off the ½ marathon time would have scored that. Next year.

There’s 1 race left in this season’s champ for those titles to be defended.

Pairs Champs

It was very very close this year but Tom got his hands on the shield for the first time. Now let’s see how long he can retain it for…

The 2017 Champs. These are specifically set up to give as many people as possible a realistic chance of challenging for a trophy. All you need to do is join in with the normal EVRC running calendar and there’s a very high chance you’ll meet all entry criteria to all the Champs without too much thinking about it. However if you’re in a trophy chasing mood please have a more detailed peruse of what’s on offer this season…

Its points. The points are awarded for making EVRC world a better and more well-known place. The full arbitrary scoring is on the ERIC page but in summary: point per mile raced under EVRC colours, points for PB’s (over fell/ultra’s with an established route and statute road distances, includes your age group PB’s), big points for records and taking part in league/ fell champs races, points for race podiums, points for doing EVRC related stuff (eg being a marshal or helping the beginners group), points for CAKE MAKING. Basically if you do something vaguely related to EVRC you’re going to get some points.

There’s an Overall trophy, Ladies trophy and the Handicap trophy. The champs are scored based on your position in races in comparison to your fellow EVRC runners. In the overall and Ladies champs it’s a straight forward points awarded for position. If your 1st EVRC home you get 12 points, 2nd gets 11 points etc. For the Handicap in each race you get a score based on your time vs the time of the winner of your category in that race e.g you win the MV70 age group you’ll score 100 and another 70 year old EVRC person finishes 1second behind you so they get 99 this would mean you get the 12 points and your competition will take the 11 points. Simple really…just run as fast as you can.

You do have to do 1 race from each category in the fell champs fixture list to be eligible for the Trophy so get the dates in your diary.

Elite

This one is about the speed and beating your peers. Over the space of the calendar year you need to race a 5mile, 10k and ½ marathon faster than everybody else to get the trophy. Your fastest result from each distance is summed and that is your elite time. For the race to count it needs to have a course measurement certificate (UKA or ARC) or be classed as a NAD course by the EVRC dubious course panel.

The champs is split by an overall winner by gender and then by sub groups of age and gender. This year the categories are split by gender and then by these age groups Senior, 40-49, 50-64 and 65+. There are hundreds of 10k and half marathons to choose from and for 5milers these are local.. Weston 5 12th March, HP summer league Wed 10th May, HPRC Grand-prix 5m Thursday 6th July or Longeaton5 Sept.

My personal favourite of all the Champs as its boy v girl, foetus V elderly..its a big ole bun fight . WAVA is a handicap system based on your age and gender e.g. a 50 year old male running a 10k in 40mins will score less points than a 45 year old lady running a 40min 10k. If you’ve ever run a parkrun they use the WAVA score on your results. Full details can be found here http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmaroad15.html . We use the 2015 calculations and it’s based on your age (and gender) as of the 1st of Jan 2017.

The Championship will be based on one’s best 3 scores achieved over 5 different distances. 5km, 5mile, 10km, 1/2 Marathon and Marathon. Only 1 score will be took from each distance. Therefore at least 3 different distances will need to be run. If you race over more than 3 distances your best 3 scores will count.

Definitely not my favourite. We’ve only got 1 race left at Trent Meadows (19/02/17) for this season then we start again in October. Its points for beating the other EVRC runners in your category, all very straightforward really.

Maybe this is my favourite. There’s a few elements; Pairs, mystery and Handicap. We spread the runs out over the summer and everything is calculated so that if you have a good running day on a personal level you’re in with a chance of winning overall. All you have to do is take part then run hard and the trophy could be yours. Dates TBC.

New for 2017……GOAT.

Who’s this year’s best runner (GOAT)? XC + Fell + Road. Let’s have a race. If you race at least 2 eligible races from each category during the year; Summer Leagues (and a few local road races), XC and Fell you’ll qualify for the champs. They’ll be a list of eligible races (as many as I have a decent set of results for). If you come out to play in the league races and the fell champs you will inadvertently qualify to chase the GOAT. The scores are handicapped (very similar to how WAVA works) so it’s man v lady, young v old. Be the GOAT!

The detail:

Over the years all your race results have been recorded for prosperity this means we now have a record of all those fast times clocked up over XC, over the fells and over the summer league routes. This allows a little calculation to be done akin to WAVA. If you go out there and run a GOAT affiliated course you’re getting GOAT points. GOAT points are based on your time vs the EVRC category club record time for that course. E.g. A 37 year old lady runs the HP summer league race in 39 mins. The FV35 EVRC course record is 38:54. Course Record / Your Time *100 = GOAT score. (00:39:00/00:38:54*100= 99.74). Your 2 highest scores form each race category will be summed and there’s your final score.

Other News. Sunday change of plans. It was track, now its XC practice.

The final round of the East Mids XC is at Trent Meadows 19/02 11:00 start. We’re doing a little course recce if you fancy a paddle this Sunday (12/02) 10:00 meet up in the carpark. The route is here https://www.plotaroute.com/route/295564 and the plan is to do a bit of an explore for 1 lap then do a tempo lap (if you fancy it..or go for dry off).